target="_blank" being stripped from Profile Bio and Category Description

Description

Many apologies if this is a duplicate. I have searched but did not find it yet posted.

I noticed that target="_blank" is being stripped from my "a href" tags my profile "Biographical Info" field even though the "a href" with the URL and closing tag still remain. It happens every time I save my profile.

there is no reason why someone who is filling out their bio with links to the relevant online info should need to code in javascript. in fact, most people using wordpress -- ie. the common user -- probably cannot. i believe the links on the HTML generated for posts, _blank is used for the "Open in New Window" option.

this should be standardized and completely independent from whether one is or is not an administrator.

It's set up as a default filter for pre_user_description so you could override that with a plugin.

You might have a case for enabling unfiltered bios for administrators, but beyond that I think the "it's allowed in posts" argument isn't going to fly. WordPress explicitly filters bios the same way as comments instead of posts.

Summary
changed from target="_blank" being stripped from Profile Bio to target="_blank" being stripped from Profile Bio and Category Description

Version
set to 2.9.2

This also occurs in category descriptions. If I add a link to one of my category descriptions and specify target="_blank", the target reference gets stripped out when saving. Unlike bios, this filter definitely should not be applied.

Adding the target to the anchor array of $allowedtags would solve that globally in kses.php after the default filters are applied in default-filters.php, but I guess there might be a security risk with adding a frame target to external location? I've uploaded a sample proof of concept above.

Not sure if there is a way to globally allow a given value for an attribute in $allowedtags.